A man on trial in Superior Court claims Windsor police planted a shopping bag full of guns and ammunition in his truck after years of harassment by a certain influential officer.

Gurfathe Singh Kooner, 27, testified he was a target of officer Tony Smith. He said he couldn’t complain publicly about Smith because the officer was a team leader for the tactical unit and also the police chief’s son.

“I’ve been having incidents with him for six or seven years,” Kooner said Tuesday. Smith has followed him, pulling him over for no reason, hauling him out of bars, assaulting him and hurling racial slurs at him, he said.

He said he and his father complained to police about Smith once, but were told nothing would be done.

Kooner is on trial charged with 15 weapons offences after being arrested at gunpoint on Nov. 5, 2009. Kooner alleges that during the arrest, Smith beat him while other officers looked on.

Kooner was being followed that day because police had received a tip that he had illegal guns, the trial heard. They found it suspicious that a silver Ford F-150 truck and a red Durango SUV left his Manning Road home simultaneously, both vehicles going in the same direction.

On Mulberry Road near Forest Glade Drive, the truck slowed. By the curb police found a green shopping bag containing a Smith & Wesson handgun, a Taurus handgun, a high-capacity magazine and a sock full of bullets, the trial has heard.

Officers have testified they saw the bag being thrown from the truck Kooner was driving.

Kooner alleged the bag had been planted by a man who was working with the police. He says Harpinder Sian had called him repeatedly that day saying a bag had been left in his vehicle and that it had to be brought to his home. Kooner didn’t know about the bag, but assumed it contained colostomy supplies belonging to Sian’s cousin, Opinder Sian, who had been visiting at his home.

Opinder Sian had gang affiliations in British Columbia, Kooner said. He had a colostomy after being shot in the stomach in a drive-by shooting there.

Harpinder Sian was on house arrest at the time, having been convicted of drug offences. He had lost his licence after nearly running over a drug officer in a police chase, Kooner said.

After Kooner’s November arrest, Harpinder Sian seemed to suddenly enjoy a good relationship with police, Kooner testified.

Kooner testified he was on his way to Toronto for business when he was arrested. He testified his family owns a trucking business that includes 25 dump trucks.

The business’s success has allowed him to drive pricey vehicles – his father owns a Lincoln truck and a Cadillac SUV and he owns the Durango and a Maserati sports car.

He said the vehicles made him a target for police officers like Smith.

“Just because I drive a nice vehicle, he thinks I’m a drug dealer. I’m not a drug dealer,” Kooner said. “I run a legitimate business. That’s what I do.”

Assistant Crown attorney Elizabeth Brown asked Kooner about his criminal record that include convictions for assault and breaches of court orders. She also pointed out that the truck Kooner was driving on the day of his arrest was a rental.

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